This picture taken on January 17, 2012 in Paris shows a close-up of the opening page of the ratings agency Moody's website. (Getty Images)

(Newser)
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Moody's isn't feeling great about the health of the financial industry right now. The rating agency put a host of banks under review for possible downgrade today, including US giants Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Morgan Stanley, the Wall Street Journal reports. It said the banks now faced "more fragile funding conditions, wider credit spreads, increased regulatory burdens" and "opacity of risk." Moody's already downgraded the banks last year to reflect its doubt that the government would ever provide a 2008-style bailout again.

But the US got off light compared to Europe, where Moody's placed a whopping 114 financial institutions under review, including big players like Barclays, Deutsche Bank, Societe Generale, HSBC, ING Groep, and the Royal Bank of Scotland, thanks to Europe's debt crisis. Earlier this week it cut both Italy and Spain's ratings, and those countries had the most banks under review, with 24 and 21 respectively.

Why aren't these CEOs and bank boards in jail for their illegal tampering of the loan market with sub-prime mortgages and giving them out to people without a non-government source of income?!?

boxcar

Feb 16, 2012 9:33 PM CST

Guess they heard about Germany's decision to stop pouring money into the sovereign debt bubbles Knowing that Greece will default, US financial institutions will embark on a mad scramble for relevance Thus Moody's has initiated a review of where we stand in re' sovereign debt bubbles about to burst. In addition, HALF of US commercial real estate is scheduled to be RESET this year- peaks Jan2013 When bank appraisers begin to realize there's NO VALUE to reset to due to vacancies, its 2008 again Google "Mortgage Resets" to see the Train Wreck we will call The Great Recession

jigga.wut

Feb 16, 2012 10:54 AM CST

It was Moody's fault that we had the melt down of 2008 for their AAA ratings of thousands of subprime mortgages. Moody's told congress, "When we say something is AAA it is our opinion, it does not speak to the market value of the security, the volatility of its price, or the suitability of its investment." fuck 'em